Wine Rack Zoo

Wallabies and kangaroos are marsupials native to Australia. Wallabies tend to be smaller, and their coats brighter. But the cousins look a lot alike, especially when shrunk to fit on a wine label.

Casella Wines Pty. Ltd., the Australian maker of Yellow Tail, says in papers filed in a New York federal court that the kangaroo on its competitor's label is portrayed in profile, is leaping, and is "oriented [in] the same direction" as the yellow-footed rock wallaby on Yellow Tail bottles. Wallabies, Casella Wines contends, are "indistinguishable to most people" from kangaroos.

"It's hard enough for consumers to make choices, let alone to be confused when they go into a store with a particular wine in mind," says John Casella, managing director of Casella Wines.

The Wine Group LLC, which makes Little Roo and is the second-largest wine supplier in the U.S, after E.&J. Gallo Winery, says Casella Wines is jumping to conclusions.

ENLARGE

Yellow Tail has filed a lawsuit in a New York federal court accusing the maker of Little Roo of trademark infringement.
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The San Francisco company "denies that the Australian wallaby is interchangeably referred to as a kangaroo," it said in a December court filing.

Dozens of species of marsupials live in Australia, and at least 10 different Australian wines feature a kangaroo or a wallaby.

Even many Aussies can't tell the difference between the two, says James Gosper, who runs Wine Australia USA, a government agency that promotes the nation's wine.

"I reckon if you bounced a wallaby in front of a group of 20 Australians who lived in Sydney and asked them what it was without leading them, you'd get at least 15 of them saying it's a kangaroo," says Mr. Gosper, who is Australian.

David Kent, the Wine Group's chief executive, says that the kangaroo on his company's label is an eastern grey bush kangaroo carrying a baby poking out from its pouch. "We were looking for a way of communicating a strong sense of place," he says. "There's been an American fascination with the joey, the baby kangaroo…It's a totally different concept."

Americans, though, do seem to mix up the animals. One recent afternoon, Sanjay Sonani, co-owner of a Lincolnwood, Ill., wine and liquor store, said he had never heard of the wallaby.

"All this time, I thought this was a kangaroo," he said, staring at a bottle of Yellow Tail. "I watch 'Animal Planet' a lot. I have heard of a kangaroo, but not a wallaby."

ENLARGE

Little Roo says Casella Wines, the makers of Yellow Tail, are jumping to conclusions.
The Wine Group

Jude Eliacin, a 39-year-old customer, wondered whether there's a difference between the animals, both members of the macropod family. "Is a wallaby smaller?" he asked.

Yellow Tail's success has led to an increase in critter labels from wineries in Australia, South Africa, France and elsewhere.

For years, labels were dominated by inanimate objects, like chateaus in France, and gobs of text. Yellow Tail, introduced in the U.S. a decade ago, popularized the living-creature label, although there were others before, like the ducks from California's Duckhorn Vineyards.

CritterWines.com, a website created in 2007 by a group of friends in Napa Valley to help drinkers find critter labels, lists about 130 types of animals featured on wines in the U.S. That's counting the unicorn and mermaid.

Michael Opdahl, who makes and markets Australian wines, says the creatures have helped the U.S. wine industry because they've "demystified wine."

Casella Wines, based in the southeastern Australia town of Yenda, argues that its wallaby mark is so familiar that consumers "have come to immediately associate use of a profile view of a kangaroo" with its wine.

The look-alike, lower-priced Little Roo, it alleges in court papers, has devalued its own brand. The company has registered several trademarks related to its wallaby with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Each year, Casella exports more than $1 billion in Yellow Tail shiraz, chardonnay and other varietals to more than 50 countries, according to its lawsuit. Yellow Tail had a meteoric rise in the U.S. after its 2001 launch, though its growth has slowed in recent years. The wine sells for about $7 per 750-milliliter bottle.

Mr. Casella says the difference between a kangaroo and a wallaby "is academic. To most people, they look the same." He says the marsupials on the two labels at issue not only look similar, but that Little Roo's label features similar colors—black and yellow—and lettering.

Mr. Kent of the Wine Group, which also makes wines like Franzia and Corbett Canyon, says Little Roo was on the market for about two years before Casella filed its lawsuit last October. Little Roo is sold in 18 states, primarily in the Safeway and Publix grocery chains, Mr. Kent says. It goes for about $6 per bottle.

Casella's Australian winemaking operations happen to be about 20 miles down the road from the Wine Group's facility in the town of Griffith, Mr. Kent says. "Typically, this is a pretty neighborly business. Instead of filing a lawsuit, you make a call and accommodations are made."

Lawyers from the two sides are talking. "We are always willing to accommodate a concrete, legitimate concern," Mr. Kent says. "They have been unable to produce one."

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